6/26/2007

Tuesday posts need to get up.

Macedonia: A new graphic novel from Villard (the same Random House publisher that currently handles the Flight books), which sees Harvey Pekar return to biographical comics once more, this time co-written with his subject, Heather Roberson, a woman who traveled to the country of the title to study life at the brink of war. Art by Ed Piskor. Review later this week.

Fox Bunny Funny: New from Top Shelf, a wordless 104-page book from Andy Hartzell, about the allegorically conflicted world of foxes and bunnies. Review tomorrow.

Apollo’s Song: In which Vertical again brings us a one-off project by Osamu Tezuka, this time a 544-page saga from 1970, concerning a troubled, violent young man who envisions the Goddess of Love during electroshock therapy, and winds up zipping through time, always finding and losing love. According to this Tezuka website, the book was intended for young readers, probably to instill Tezuka's idea of healthy messages about sex and relationships via the increasing frankness of contemporary manga. How any of this will appear to adult Western readers in 2007 is up for grabs (granted, most of the popular manga read in English these days was officially aimed at 14-year olds upon serialization), but there's little doubt that the storytelling mastery of Tezuka will shine through.

To Terra… Vol. 3 (of 3): Also from Vertical, the concluding chapter of Keiko Takemiya's space-faring saga. I just managed to locate an actual copy of Vol. 2 in a bookstore, so I was pretty happy about being caught up, but now my smile is ruined.

Forever Nuts Vol. 1: The Early Years of Mutt & Jeff: A MoCCA debut, and instantly ready for stores. Forever Nuts is NBM's new banner for collections of miscellaneous early newspaper strips, with an emphasis on screwy comedy. First up is the 100-year old Mutt & Jeff, 192 pages of it for $24.95. I like the idea of 'best-of' samplings of strips that almost certainly wouldn't manage a more complete bookshelf treatment, so I hope this does well.

The Art of Bone: New from Dark Horse’s deluxe The Art of… series, a 200-page hardcover collection of odds and ends concerning Jeff Smith’s popular work. If it’s anything like prior books in the series, there’ll be bits of rare completed material and promotional art mixed in with production materials, along with some light commentary by the artist himself. The preview seems to bear this out.

The Artist Within: Dark Horse also has what’s without doubt the oddball project of the week - an oversized 216-page hardcover book of photographs of noted cartoonists, often in the workspaces, by Greg Preston. The preview suggests a simple biography-photo rhythm. It’s $39.95.

1-800-MICE #2: Also debuted at MoCCA, and now ready for stores, it’s the new issue of Matthew Thurber’s ongoing series from PictureBox. Many strange sights and ancient VHS tapes await you inside.

Garth Ennis’ Streets of Glory Preview: The typical 16-page Avatar preview thingy, with story pages, sketches and a writer's essay, this time dealing with Garth Ennis' and Mike Wolfer's upcoming western (as in horses and gunfights) comic.

Hellboy: Darkness Calls #3 (of 6): Don't.

Criminal #7: Forget.

The Immortal Iron Fist #6: Other.

Silent War #6 (of 6): Series.

Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess’ Stardust: Hey, wait a minute, Vertigo! Shouldn’t it be Neil Gaiman’s and Charles Vess’ Stardust, possessives on both names? Have I been doing it wrong all this time? Clearly it’s grammar issues like this that prevent too many creators’ names from going before the titles of books. Anyway, here’s a new $39.99 oversized hardcover edition of this material, since a movie’s coming out and all.